If this article has lit a spark in you, understand the risks. Psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Moore, who studied "occult seeking behavior" in a 2018 paper, warns that the search for John Chang has ruined lives. "People quit jobs, drain savings, and travel to Indonesia expecting a master to appear," she says. "They return disillusioned because they didn’t train their own chi first."
McMillan, a successful real estate investor and martial arts practitioner in the United States, sees the Ring of Fire documentary. Fascinated and deeply skeptical, he resolves to find Chang. After years of dead ends, he traces Chang to Surabaya, Indonesia. His initial meeting is anti-climactic: Chang is a quiet, unassuming middle-aged man who runs a small Chinese medicine shop.
Chang famously refused to teach Westerners because, as he put it, "Your mind is too busy. You seek power for ego. You would burn your own house down."